How health care may modify the effects of illness determinants on population outcomes: the Leicester SEARCH conceptual framework for primary care.

To research, evaluate, and deliver health care that effectively improves health outcomes across populations, relationships between the numerous variables that determine these outcomes should be understood. Conceptual frameworks can aid the description and analysis of health in populations. Investigators usually have an implicit framework underpinning their research. Population health lags behind other disciplines, such as psychology and sociology, in the use of conceptual frameworks;1 currently published frameworks are not configured ideally for primary care-focused research. In this article, we aim to fill an important gap by describing a new and comprehensive conceptual framework for population health that can assist both research and service in primary care. The framework provides a schematic overview of presumed relationships between variables, recognising that many variables do not ‘behave’ consistently in every situation.